How Jami Goto Built a Thriving Longarm Quilting Business: 14 Years of Lessons

0:00 All right, so we're going to go ahead and get started, Jamie.

0:27 All right, Jamie Goto, right? That is correct. Okay, it's not Goto, it's not Gato.

0:38 Goto, yeah. Well, Jamie, well, we're glad to have you here today. Can you tell us

0:45 where are you located? Where's home for you? I am in Surprise, Arizona. We're just northwest of Phoenix.

0:53 Okay, and you're a long armer that I have met before.

1:01 Yes. How long have you been doing long arming?

1:06 Since 2010, as a business, since 2010. So, previous to that, I played on a long arm.

1:14 A friend of mine had a gamel, she had a hand-guided gamel, and so I played on hers for a while

1:21 before I decided to jump in the business. Okay, so you had a friend with a gamel, and you were

1:28 able to kind of get a taste of it and try it out. So, when you got your gamel,

1:40 you got it specifically to start doing business? I did, I did. I had been in the mortgage industry

1:50 for 27 years, and when everything happened in 08, I was laid off and was trying to figure out

1:59 what did I want to be when I grew up. So, I've been quilting since high school, but hadn't

2:07 really done a whole lot of it while raising a family and all that good stuff. So, when I decided

2:15 to take the plunge after playing on my friend's gamel classic, I knew that I wanted a gamel

2:24 because I had done some research and knew it was the Cadillac of long-arm quilting machines,

2:30 and I knew that going Statler was the right choice for me because I am much more of a

2:37 computer person than artistic in the way that a lot of hand-guided people are.

2:45 And so, you said you did a little bit of research. Did you kind of shop around a little bit?

2:55 I did. I didn't really test any because I already kind of knew I wanted to go gamel,

3:02 but I just wanted to make sure I did some research and just looked at ratings. There

3:10 was not quite as much out there on long-arms as you see today, even though it's only 14 years ago,

3:19 but with all the social media and whatnot, you see a lot more.

3:23 A lot has happened in 14 years.

3:25 A lot has happened in 14 years. So, for me, it was just talking to people that I knew

3:32 that had long-arms, and some of them had some of the other competitors that were just coming out

3:37 on the market, and they bought what they could afford, and I just knew that I wanted a Statler.

3:47 Now, this friend of yours that you were able to use, did she have computerized or hand-guided?

3:55 No, she had hand-guided, and she actually had one. Oh, gosh, I think she bought her first one in

4:00 around 2000, so she'd had one for quite a while, and she actually shared it with another friend.

4:06 They went in together and bought it, and then she had to sell it for some unknown reason,

4:15 and then six months later, she's like, why did I do that? She went and got another one,

4:19 and she bought it for herself and put it in her garage, and then her daughter, who was just out

4:25 of high school, she learned how to do it. So, she's the one that actually showed me how to

4:31 load a quilt and do the hand-guided part. So, here I have this young whippersnapper

4:37 teaching me how to quilt. So, do you still have the same

4:44 gamble that you started out with?

4:47 No, actually, I bought the Statler in 2010. I was running 4.2, so that kind of goes way back.

4:56 Yeah, and in 2013, we decided to buy a second machine because I was so busy

5:05 and trying to keep up, and I taught my husband how to do edge-to-edge.

5:11 And yes, so I taught him. So, at that time, I had a machine that was in a local shop and then

5:19 my friend's shop who had a hand-guided gamble, and he had a machine at home, so I just set him up and

5:29 gave him his assignments for the day. And so, he had the newer machine at the house,

5:35 and I had my original machine at the shop. But when we decided to move to Arizona in 2016,

5:43 I sold my original machine and brought the newer one with me. So, that's the one that

5:49 I have is the one from 2013. Okay, okay, gotcha. So,

5:55 when you first started, you started out to build a business. Did you know if there was enough

6:05 business in the area like when you first started? Tell us a little bit about that.

6:11 I did, and at the time, in 2010, and especially in Southern California where I was working,

6:20 there was a lot of quilt shops then. It's amazing what's happened in the 14 years,

6:26 how the brick and mortar quilt shops have kind of gone by the wayside. But I was very, very lucky

6:33 because my friends owned the shop, and I was able to set my business up in their shop. So,

6:39 I just rented space from them. And so, there's actually two of us that were in the shop because

6:44 it was a pretty large shop. And their daughter is the one that taught me. She's the one that had

6:50 the other machine in the shop. So, we both just rented space from people, our friends that own

6:55 the shop, and I got started there. I didn't take customer business immediately. I did lots and lots

7:03 of cherry quilts. I probably worked a straight 60 days every single day. Well, I should say every

7:11 single day. Five days a week, I should say. For a good two months before I decided I was ready

7:18 to take on a customer quilt, and it's just been non-stop since.

7:22 So, you started out doing like a solid two months of just charity work, huh?

7:28 Yes.

7:30 And why was that? Just for practicing or what?

7:35 It was just really just to feel comfortable with the software, to know what I was doing. And I

7:43 felt like it was a good step to just get proficient. And it was just mainly because I wanted to make

7:54 sure I was putting out a quality product. And that was utmost important to me, was to make sure that

8:01 I am giving customer something that they want, and that's quality. Make sure my tension was good.

8:09 Everything was... It was the perfect quilt. So, that was my main focus. And I just had tons of

8:17 charity quilts, not that I had done, that the shop had gotten involved with. So, to me, it was

8:24 the right thing to do.

8:25 So, looking back now, do you think that was a good move for you to have that couple of months

8:35 of doing that before you jumped in full-fledged?

8:39 You know, I wouldn't say I would have needed technically two months to do it. I think I was...

8:44 It was... I had always worked for somebody. It was just, you know, I didn't know what I was doing.

8:51 I had always worked for somebody. It was just, am I ready to take that plunge?

8:57 And it was kind of a fear factor thing for me.

9:02 You were used to working for somebody. You just had that old PTSD where you think you might get

9:08 in trouble.

9:10 Exactly. And there's nothing worse than having somebody come back and say,

9:15 oh, gosh, I am not happy with what you did. Which, thank goodness, in 14 years,

9:21 that's probably only happened once. And it was a pattern that she selected. So,

9:25 it wasn't really my fault. So, like...

9:30 You remember that one time well.

9:32 I do. I do. But, yeah. So, it's 60 days to me doing it five days a week. It's not a necessity

9:42 by any stretch of the imagination, especially the way the software is developed.

9:47 Gotcha.

9:48 To me, it's much easier to work in Creative Studio today than it was back when I was on 4.2.

9:55 Yes.

9:56 Yeah. I really just don't think that that's a necessity. I think it's really...

10:01 You know, I think 30 days would be a long push. But, you know, it depends on each individual.

10:08 Yeah.

10:09 Yeah. And, you know, our target audience for this podcast is people who are either starting a

10:18 business or thinking about going into business. And we just want the real take from people like

10:25 you of what works, what doesn't work, what might be necessary, what you think is not necessary. So,

10:33 yeah. So, when you got that first Statler, how did you... Where did you get the funds to do that?

10:45 How'd that work out?

10:45 From our savings. We, you know, it was something that we felt was a good investment,

10:54 and that's how we looked at it. And we just decided that it was worthwhile to

10:59 pull the money out of our savings and just purchase the machine outright. And

11:05 we actually purchased both of our machines outright.

11:09 Okay. And when you first started doing the quilting,

11:18 were you working when you first started or not at that time?

11:21 No. No, I hadn't worked for over two years.

11:23 Oh, okay. Okay.

11:25 Yeah.

11:26 So, what year did you say you started again?

11:30 2010.

11:32 Okay. So, yeah. So, that was two years after that, 2008. Yeah, that was a fun time for many people.

11:39 Yeah. No, it wasn't, but yeah.

11:41 Yeah. I got you. Okay. So, now, well, tell me about

11:48 where you are now and where you have been as far as

11:56 like how much time you put into this, like how many hours a week you used to be working on it

12:02 and what you're doing now and the reasons for that and what's going on.

12:07 Yeah. For me, when I initially started, I was treating it like a regular full-time job.

12:13 I worked Monday through Friday. I was in the shop usually by seven,

12:17 seven-thirty in the morning and the shop closed at five. So, when you typically leave,

12:22 my hours weren't my own hours. I wasn't tied to shop hours, but to me, it was important to be

12:29 there when the shop was open. So, it certainly didn't open until nine, but I always liked to

12:32 get an early start. I was always an early bird type person. So, I was always in there early.

12:37 So, I would say I was probably working 50, 45, 50 hours a week initially and once I started

12:46 taking quilts in, it's never stopped. I have never not had work ever. So, for me, obviously,

12:56 it's advantageous being in a shop because you get a lot of that walk-in clientele,

13:02 but after that, it was still word of mouth. If you don't do a good job, it doesn't matter

13:06 that you're in a shop. If you aren't putting out a quality product, it doesn't matter that you're

13:11 in a shop. The key point is that you still have to make sure you're doing quality work,

13:16 you're doing what the customer wants, and just the fact that you are tied to the shop,

13:23 obviously, you're representing the shop as well, even though I don't work for them,

13:27 but still, it's a representation of the shop. So, initially, I would say it was definitely

13:33 more than probably the 40 hours a week. Since we moved to Arizona,

13:42 I was probably working 40 hours when we first got here, but I, about four years ago,

13:47 decided to cut my hours back. I am now only working four days a week, so mainly because

13:54 I decided I needed more me time. So, I'm working about 32 hours a week right now,

14:01 and the goal is probably in another two, three years, I'll probably cut that back to three days,

14:08 mainly because income requirements are not the same as they were 14 years ago. So,

14:17 the ability to make the income is definitely still there. It's just that I decided to be selfish and

14:23 have a little bit more me time. Yeah, that's not selfish. That's great because

14:31 that gives, yeah, that me time, the freedom to do what you want with your own life.

14:41 It's not like a ball and chain to you. It just gives you a lot of freedom because if you're

14:47 still working for somebody else all this time, I think it would be a lot different picture than

14:55 what you're seeing. Oh, 100 percent, and there's nothing like the freedom to be able to make that

15:02 decision to where I'm not having to get approval from anybody other than myself and my husband.

15:10 Yeah, let me ask you, when you started out, you're in the shop there, and

15:18 when you started out, do you know, could you say what kind of percentage

15:27 of your business was like walk-in versus other sources? I mean, do you have any memory about that?

15:37 You know, walk-in initially was all 100 percent, obviously. I would say probably after the first

15:44 year was when my name was kind of gotten out. It had kind of gotten out there, and I started

15:51 getting a lot of referral business. So, you know, probably within the first year,

15:57 I would say walk-in business was probably maybe 50 percent, and the rest was repeat and referrals,

16:07 and that continued to kind of go down as time went on, just because I gained such a large clientele,

16:16 and yeah, so I was very lucky, and I know that I was lucky, but I also feel that the decisions that

16:24 I made and the way I treated my customers and the quality product I was putting out there

16:29 was why I was successful. Now, and you started out, you're in Southern California.

16:38 Originally, yes, I was in Orange County originally, yeah. Okay, so you were in a populous area. Now,

16:43 are you, and when you moved, what year did you say you moved? 2016. And is the place you live now a

16:53 real populous area, or what? Definitely not like Orange County. Nothing is. Yeah, no, not anywhere

17:05 remotely close to that. We're actually considered rural, which I kind of laugh because I'm in a

17:10 neighborhood just like everybody else with houses all back, you know, next to each other, but it's

17:18 not, you know, we're 45 minutes away from Phoenix, so it's not like we're in the heart of

17:26 the cosmopolitan area. So yeah, I would really say more, even though we're considered rural,

17:32 I would say we're more suburban than rural, and amazingly, we have several quilt shops that are

17:40 in our local area. I mean, within a 20-minute drive, there's four different quilt stores,

17:48 which is almost unheard of anymore. Yeah, there's still a few out there,

17:55 but yeah, there's a lot of movement towards people are working from their homes and stuff like that.

18:03 Right. So now, as you stand right now, do you do all edge-to-edge? Do you do any custom?

18:16 I do a combination. I do probably 75-80% edge-to-edge and 20-25% custom. I've kind of

18:30 become a specialist in the Judy Niemeyer realm, so my name is out there. People know I have people

18:38 ship me quilts from other parts of the country because somehow my name has gotten out there

18:43 that I do a lot of custom quilting on those, but physically, they're demanding, so I limit my

18:52 number of customs, and in reality, you know, your bread and butter is your edge-to-edge.

18:59 So, you know, I enjoy doing custom work. I have had to cut back on doing custom with a lot of

19:07 applique, and that's because I physically can't do it. I have issues with my back,

19:11 so it's not that I don't want to do it. It's because I physically can't do it,

19:18 whereas the Judy Niemeyer is a little different animal. It's not like you're standing around

19:23 looking around applique. For the most part, it's just plotting out your boundary and plopping in

19:30 your patterns and letting it go, but so, you know, yeah, I usually designate one week a month

19:37 to do custom, and then the rest of the time is pretty much edge-to-edge.

19:43 Okay, okay, and how do you, do you charge by the hour, by the square inch?

19:51 Tell us about that. On my edge-to-edge, I charge by the square inch, so I'm at,

19:57 I start at two and a half, and

20:00 which is just for basic, your meander, your easy stuff.

20:06 But a majority of my customers go

20:08 where they have a much bigger selection.

20:11 And that's a 2.75 it starts per square inch.

20:16 My custom is by the hour

20:19 because you just never really know

20:23 what it's going to take to do that.

20:26 And that was a choice.

20:30 Some people charge by the square inch

20:32 and it works for them.

20:33 But if I'm working, I'm working.

20:37 When I start working for the day

20:39 at eight o'clock-ish in the morning,

20:41 it's not like I'm taking breaks and doing that.

20:44 It's a full day for me.

20:47 So for the hour, I keep very close track of my time

20:51 that I work on quilts.

20:53 And it just made the best sense for me.

20:57 And there's people out there

20:59 that put a lot of time into their quilts

21:02 but they don't want to pay for the custom quilting.

21:04 And for me, if you're not willing to pay,

21:08 then I'm not your quilter.

21:09 And I have that luxury to turn that kind of business away

21:13 because I'm not going to quilt something

21:16 and spend all my time and resources

21:19 for not getting paid fairly for what I do.

21:24 And has that kind of always been the case?

21:32 Your past?

21:33 Yeah, for me, it was when I was in the shop,

21:38 the daughter that had the other machine,

21:41 she charged by the square inch on everything.

21:46 And it was just my choice.

21:48 So it was her business and I did my business my way.

21:52 And I just felt that I was more fairly compensated

21:57 doing it by the hour versus by the inch.

22:02 Okay.

22:03 Yeah, and that's good information

22:06 for a lot of the people that watch and listen to this show

22:12 because I know that's something that we get questions on

22:16 a lot of time, by the hour versus by the square inch.

22:21 And I think you've made a good case for,

22:24 whether by the hour, because that way,

22:30 you get paid for your time.

22:32 Right, and I just think it's the most,

22:34 for me, I think it's the most fair way to do it

22:37 because the same quilt, if I do the exact same quilt,

22:41 say it's a Judy Niemeyer,

22:43 but I don't have a bunch of thread color changes

22:45 or maybe this one's not pieced as well.

22:48 So you're having to do a lot of manipulation

22:50 in your patterns.

22:51 And that all takes time.

22:52 And I don't think it would be fair for me to charge

22:55 the one quilt that has fewer thread changes

22:59 and perfect piecing and charge the same

23:02 for something that has a lot more thread changes

23:04 and needs a little attention on the piecing.

23:09 So, it's just, it's what my time is worth.

23:13 And that was my business decision

23:16 as to why I chose to do it that way.

23:21 And yeah, I think that's a valuable piece of,

23:24 that's a valuable statement.

23:25 That's what, it's what your time is worth.

23:30 I have a question from one of the viewers,

23:35 said, so for design work on the custom,

23:38 do you charge for the planning and design time too?

23:43 I do, I do.

23:46 So, but for the most part,

23:48 because I do a lot of the Judy Niemeyers,

23:50 those, the planning for those,

23:52 there's really not much planning

23:54 because so many of the patterns are digitized

23:56 for the different patterns that are out there.

24:00 So, for those, it's for the other kind of quilts,

24:04 maybe where you've got something with a lot of

24:08 set triangles and block work and that sort of a thing,

24:12 that takes a lot of additional time

24:15 because you're deciding a lot of patterns,

24:16 making sure you're,

24:17 my customer wants the design that I've gone for.

24:21 So yes, in those cases, but if they give me free reign,

24:25 a lot of times I'm doing design work

24:27 while I'm stitching out an edge to edge.

24:29 So I don't necessarily charge for that as,

24:32 so it really is kind of case by case.

24:36 Gotcha.

24:39 Let me ask you this, Jamie.

24:41 You, it sounds like you were kind of at a certain level

24:47 of volume wise for a while,

24:50 and now you're a little bit down from that.

24:56 Probably on your, during your busiest time,

24:58 do you have an idea about how many quilts

25:01 you would do in a year?

25:04 I can, yes, actually.

25:06 Upper number versus the lower number?

25:08 Yeah, my busiest year was 2013, 2014.

25:15 At that time I had two machines,

25:18 but there's kind of a caveat to those two years

25:22 because I actually did work on some,

25:27 some custom work for the movie industry.

25:31 And so those are other opportunities that are out there

25:34 that a lot of people aren't aware of.

25:38 I actually quilted fabric for the Hunger Games series

25:43 and also for the movie Tomorrowland.

25:46 I did, I did.

25:48 So which, what I did for Tomorrowland

25:50 was a whole bunch of yardage and was a ton of work,

25:54 and I would never do it again

25:58 because I was running two machines for six weeks straight

26:03 because you're on a time crunch with that.

26:05 So there's, there's good and bad,

26:08 but, and unfortunately that movie was a huge success.

26:13 Oh, well.

26:14 But the Hunger Games was actually one specific costume.

26:19 So it wasn't nearly as labor intensive

26:22 and it was a lot of fun to work on.

26:25 And, and I get to see it on the screen.

26:28 So that's kind of fun.

26:30 So that, was that the original Hunger Games movie or?

26:36 Actually it was the fourth one, Mockingjay part two.

26:40 So it's when they were actually-

26:42 Which costume was it?

26:44 It was the one that was kind of a hooded cape.

26:46 It was green, kind of a green color fabric.

26:50 It was actually a satin with a organza on top.

26:55 So, and some of it had to be fireproof fabric

26:58 on the backing because there were points

27:01 when she could have been on fire, I guess.

27:05 So that was the main girl, the main girl wore that?

27:09 Yes, yes, Jennifer.

27:11 Yeah, she did.

27:11 Your claim to fame there, yeah.

27:14 Yeah, it's kind of fun.

27:16 So, but to get back to the original question,

27:19 that year, I could probably give you more income wise

27:22 what I, what I did that year.

27:23 Those two years were pretty much the same

27:25 and then we were right around $66,000 for each year.

27:30 So volume wise, you know, again

27:34 I was with two machines,

27:38 but I took a lot of time off that year too.

27:40 So, that, you know, that was probably

27:44 my highest income year.

27:46 I probably took all about almost two months off that year.

27:49 So if I had worked those two months,

27:52 it would have been a nice chunk of change that year.

27:56 The next highest year was actually 2023, believe it or not.

28:00 And I only worked four days a week last year.

28:03 And I did approximately 450 quilts

28:07 and it was for, my income last year was 59,000.

28:11 So, and that's only working four days a week.

28:15 So I-

28:16 And do you think, is that because have,

28:19 are your prices higher than they were?

28:22 If you're able to ask more?

28:25 Yeah, that's, you know, it's funny

28:27 and I just raised my square inch price in 2023.

28:32 I went up a quarter of a cent.

28:33 So, you know, we're not talking significant.

28:37 I did also raise my custom rate from $30 to $35 an hour.

28:45 So yeah, obviously that's a factor

28:48 because in 2024, excuse me, 2022,

28:52 my income was below 50,000,

28:56 but I also took some time off then too,

28:58 because we moved.

28:59 And so that was a little bit of a factor there too.

29:02 So, but I mean,

29:04 last year was probably a pretty good representation.

29:10 You know, I worked normal.

29:13 I didn't really take any significant time off.

29:15 I probably took three, four weeks off last year

29:18 throughout the course of the year,

29:22 but you know, not bad for working four days a week.

29:26 And as I'm sitting here listening to you,

29:29 one thing that I hear is that you,

29:32 you seem to have a lot of freedom, you know?

29:34 You can, yeah, you can take time.

29:37 100%, 100%.

29:39 I'm very, very lucky because I have,

29:41 all of my grandchildren are within

29:43 about a five mile radius.

29:45 And there's been times when the kids

29:47 have gotten sick at school or, you know,

29:49 somebody needs, you know, grandma needs to step in

29:51 and walk, babysit or, you know, whatever.

29:54 But yeah, you know, and.

29:56 That's the important stuff there, you know?

29:58 Absolutely.

29:59 Family first, family first.

30:01 But yeah, you know, plus, you know,

30:03 if they are sick and they have to stay

30:05 at grandma and grandpa's, I can still work.

30:08 So that's the other perk.

30:09 So, you know, for the most part,

30:12 unless it's something super serious,

30:14 but no, I mean, yeah, you know,

30:15 when they have a little cold and can't go to school,

30:18 then they stay with grandma and papa

30:20 and be spoiled and I work.

30:24 That's awesome.

30:25 That's awesome.

30:26 Yeah.

30:28 I'm enjoying talking to you today.

30:29 This is good.

30:32 This is fun.

30:33 Let me ask you, Jamie.

30:35 Do you, at your, you know,

30:37 you run your shop out of your house there.

30:40 Do you sell supplies like batting,

30:42 wide back fabrics, et cetera?

30:45 I sell batting.

30:47 I carry a wide range of batting

30:49 because being in Arizona, we have a lot of snowbirds.

30:52 So there's a lot of different requests

30:56 from people who don't live here year round.

30:59 And believe it or not,

31:01 I carry about 20 different colors of 90 inch wide minky,

31:05 which you're thinking, Arizona,

31:07 why would you be using a lot of minky?

31:09 But I sell a lot of minky.

31:13 And I decided, I used to carry-

31:15 Like you said, there's a lot of snowbirds there.

31:17 There are.

31:18 And you know what, you know, my grandkids,

31:20 they don't want to cool unless it has minky on the back,

31:22 even here in Arizona.

31:23 So they like the cuddliness of it.

31:27 And then that's totally fine.

31:29 But so that's definitely a perk, you know,

31:33 it adds to my bottom line and I charge retail prices.

31:38 And, you know, so I don't want to undercut my bulk shops

31:44 and those that are selling it as well.

31:46 So I always take that into consideration

31:49 is because I think it's important not to undercut them.

31:52 And same thing with batting.

31:53 I don't sell batting at a discount.

31:55 I sell it at the same price that the quilt shop sell it for.

31:59 Yeah.

32:00 You know, as I'm talking to you,

32:02 one thing I sense is there's a certain confidence

32:07 in, you know, knowing what you're worth,

32:13 knowing what your work is worth,

32:15 and, you know, not being apologetic or timid about that.

32:21 And I think that carries over to probably

32:27 your conversation with customers, you know,

32:31 just talking to them, that sense of, yeah,

32:37 my work is worth this amount and, you know,

32:41 take it or leave it.

32:42 Right.

32:44 Do you think that that mindset is an important thing or what?

32:52 100%.

32:53 You know, you have to,

32:55 and I'm not saying that that happened right away either.

32:59 It was something that has grown over time

33:02 and just getting the confidence with learning how to,

33:08 you know, I've always been very customer service focused.

33:11 So that was never an issue for me.

33:15 But getting the confidence in my quilting for sure

33:18 was something that, you know,

33:21 it built up more and more over time.

33:23 I mean, I gained confidence pretty quickly

33:25 because I did learn Creative Studio pretty quickly.

33:29 And, you know, my name got out there pretty quickly.

33:35 So I was very lucky.

33:36 And, you know, so I think knowledge is key

33:42 and you can never learn too much.

33:44 There's so many different ways within Creative Studio

33:47 that you can get from point A to point B

33:50 and how you manage to do that,

33:54 what works best for you may not be what works best for me

33:57 and vice versa.

33:57 So the key is, is the end result.

34:01 And, you know, I'm pretty proud to say, you know,

34:05 over 14 years of doing this

34:07 and there's really only been two customers

34:10 in that lifetime that I would say I kind of had to divorce.

34:16 And again, one of those is because she chose a pattern

34:19 and wasn't happy with it, which that wasn't my doing.

34:23 And the other one was just,

34:25 she just had very unrealistic expectations

34:28 as to what she wanted and what I could give her.

34:32 And so, and the key is to know when to say no.

34:38 The no is a complete sentence

34:40 and you have to know what you're capable of.

34:44 And, you know, I have confidence now

34:47 I can pretty much accomplish anything

34:49 on Creative Studio and on a quilt,

34:52 but I can't say that, you know, 12, 13 years ago

34:56 that that would have been the case.

34:58 In the summertime, it definitely builds.

35:01 And yeah, 100%, it's the more confident you are

35:07 in what you're doing is definitely,

35:10 your customers see it and they know it.

35:15 You got any insight into dealing with difficult customers?

35:20 I know you mentioned those couple.

35:24 Any other tidbits of wisdom?

35:27 You know, I just think it's important.

35:28 You know, typically it's because of something

35:32 that either, you know, their expectations are one thing.

35:38 And, you know, when you're consulting with your customers,

35:42 when you're having that meeting with them

35:44 and talking about what they want to do on their quilt,

35:46 it's important to make sure you're taking a look

35:48 at what you're dealing with when it comes in

35:52 and being realistic with them and say, you know,

35:56 if you have a customer that comes in

35:57 where the quilt is a bunch of super busy fabrics,

36:01 I want custom on this and I'm going to say,

36:04 well, I'll do custom if you really want,

36:06 but I think you're throwing your money away.

36:09 And, you know, I think it's more being honest

36:12 and telling them, you know,

36:14 you've got all this busy fabric here,

36:16 why do you, you're not going to see the quilting?

36:19 I would recommend not doing that.

36:22 But if they still want me to do custom on it,

36:23 I'm not going to tell them no, you know, I'll do it.

36:27 But it's just being real and giving them

36:32 those realistic expectations.

36:34 And for me, I think one of the big things out there

36:38 that people struggle with when it comes

36:39 to their long-arm quilter is, you know,

36:41 their quilts, they take them to their quilter

36:44 and they're in a queue

36:46 and it's whenever their number comes up.

36:50 I, on the other hand, actually, I use a scheduling system.

36:53 I just use my Google calendar

36:56 and I know how many quilts I can get done in a day.

36:59 And based on the size of a quilt and what I'm doing on it.

37:02 And I tell them a day that I'm going to actually

37:06 start working on their quilt and people appreciate that.

37:10 They know what the turnaround time is

37:12 and they know when they're going to get their quilt back.

37:17 And that's a big deal for a lot of people.

37:20 And, you know, I always leave enough room

37:21 in my schedule to handle those people

37:24 who, oh my gosh, my daughter-in-law had a baby

37:27 and I need to have the school to right away

37:28 or whatever the case is.

37:31 I keep enough flexibility in there to accommodate that.

37:35 But I just think it's important to let people know

37:40 what are you dealing with exactly?

37:42 Your turnaround time.

37:42 Right now, my turnaround time is about a month out.

37:46 There's times when it's almost three months out

37:48 but they know that in advance because I'm telling them

37:51 I'll get your quilt done this day.

37:54 Yeah, it sounds like an important thing is established.

38:01 So people have, yeah, realistic, the expectations.

38:05 You've used that word several times, expectation.

38:09 So people know what to expect and yeah,

38:14 there's no guesswork there.

38:19 No, and you know, and if I do run across a problem,

38:22 the perfect example is the quilt that I worked on.

38:25 It was a brand new customer.

38:27 She's in Colorado.

38:28 She got my name from somebody else.

38:30 So I never personally met her,

38:33 but she bailed me two quilts,

38:35 two Judy Neumeier's that she wanted custom.

38:37 So, you know, we're talking a good chunk of change

38:39 for quilting those two quilts.

38:42 And when I opened it up, I kind of had to take,

38:46 you know, I examine everything pretty closely

38:48 and I noticed that there were some issues

38:50 with some of her seam work.

38:53 So I called her, I just picked up the phone

38:55 and I called her.

38:55 I said, look, this is what we're working with.

38:57 And I said, you know, just the nature of the kind of quilt

38:59 that you have here is gonna be very difficult

39:01 to fix those seams.

39:03 I said, you know, I can quilt it,

39:05 just know that I'm not gonna be able to repair

39:09 what's not repairable.

39:11 And she was so thankful that I called her

39:15 because she said another quilter she had sent quilts to

39:18 didn't and just basically gave her her quilts back quilted

39:23 and just gave her all kinds of negative feedback.

39:26 And she thanked me up and down

39:28 because I was very positive with her

39:30 and tried to walk her through ways to maybe in the next one,

39:34 how to do a little bit differently

39:36 to have a better outcome.

39:38 And she was very, very appreciative.

39:41 In fact, I posted her quilts on Facebook

39:43 because I have my own business Facebook page.

39:47 And she was so excited because even though it wasn't perfect

39:52 for a lot of people,

39:53 it still ended up being a beautiful quilt.

39:55 And, you know, she was proud of that.

39:58 So, you know, I think that's.

40:00 That's important too, is to make sure to communicate

40:03 with your customers.

40:05 Yeah, yeah.

40:09 I got a question.

40:13 This is a hypothetical, but with your one Statler machine

40:22 and you working by yourself and you were like under the gun,

40:26 how many quilts could you put out and how long

40:33 would it take you to, like, how many quilts

40:35 could you put out in a month if you were like

40:37 just going as hard as you could?

40:39 Oh, oh gosh.

40:43 That's a good question.

40:45 Let me think about that one.

40:48 I'm throwing a curve ball at you.

40:49 Yeah, you are, you are.

40:51 I mean, if it was just that fast.

40:52 People wonder about this kind of thing.

40:55 And they should, because that's an important part

40:58 of the decision-making when you're making

41:01 that kind of investment.

41:02 But perfect example, yesterday and today.

41:06 Yesterday I did three lap-sized quilts in eight hours.

41:10 And that wasn't, you know, those were not

41:13 super open patterns.

41:14 They were average size, medium size quilting.

41:17 And that was from start to finish.

41:18 That was loading to taking the last one off.

41:22 And I actually loaded another quilt

41:24 at the end of the day.

41:25 Today, I actually did two laptop,

41:29 two lap-size and three baby quilts.

41:32 And I just loaded another one just before I got on the call.

41:36 So, you know, I upgraded to the Ascend, which was huge.

41:44 I did that in September.

41:47 And for Etsy.

41:48 Did you see a difference with that Ascend?

41:50 I did.

41:52 The speed on that, and I'm very anal.

41:54 So I was not one that kind of let it go full speed.

41:59 When I first got it, I was kind of afraid.

42:01 I kind of kept it at my original speed.

42:04 And I would like notch it up one.

42:06 And then I would notch it up another one.

42:08 I still am not full speed.

42:12 But, you know, the speed on edge-to-edge is huge.

42:16 The bigger thing for me was the precision.

42:19 The precision is absolutely amazing.

42:25 That was, for any reason at all,

42:28 that would be the one reason I would say

42:29 I'm the happiest with the Ascend upgrade, hands down.

42:35 Yeah, the Ascend, they have beefier X and Y motors

42:39 and beefier belts, which enables them

42:42 to have both higher speed

42:45 and combined with the higher speed, better accuracy.

42:50 So I've heard so much good stuff about the Ascend

42:57 when I talk to people in tech support.

42:59 So, all right, we've got to move on.

43:03 I haven't even got halfway through my questions here.

43:07 No, but that's good.

43:08 That's good.

43:09 You're very enjoyable to talk to.

43:11 Can you think of anything that's been,

43:14 that was really hard about growing your business?

43:18 Is there anything that you can think of

43:19 and that you would be able to tell somebody

43:22 that's starting out?

43:24 I think the hardest thing for me was establishing

43:31 when I'm working and when I'm not working.

43:34 Being in the shop was easy

43:36 because once I left, I was done.

43:38 Are you a bit of a workaholic?

43:42 No.

43:44 Now we are.

43:45 I'm sorry, okay.

43:46 I used to be in my previous life, yes.

43:54 I worked a lot of hours when I was in the mortgage industry.

43:59 And just getting the business started,

44:01 I felt that I had a lot of time to do it.

44:06 I felt that I just had to do that.

44:11 I was trying to keep a quick turn time

44:13 and establish my base.

44:16 So probably that was the hardest thing.

44:21 And then once my machines, I moved them home,

44:24 which was in 2015, it was closing that door

44:31 and just leaving the machines be overnight.

44:35 And I was pretty good at that pretty quickly,

44:39 believe it or not.

44:39 And now it's a non-issue.

44:42 When I'm done for the day, I'm done for the day.

44:45 I don't get up in the middle of the night

44:48 when I can't sleep and say,

44:49 oh, I guess I'll go quilt some more.

44:53 That thought actually never crossed my mind.

44:56 I would rather read something.

45:01 My quilting time is my quilting time.

45:03 And I like to keep my,

45:05 that's me and my mind doesn't think about it

45:06 as I'm trying to go to sleep and going,

45:08 oh my God, what am I gonna do in the next quilt?

45:11 Yeah, I'm guilty of that one.

45:12 But as far as separating work and business,

45:16 oh, excuse me, work and personal time,

45:19 that was probably the toughest thing for me initially.

45:23 And that's something you have grown in since then,

45:27 you think?

45:28 Yeah, oh, most definitely.

45:31 Yeah.

45:32 A lot of it's because my husband's retired.

45:33 So, and I have grandkids that live close by

45:36 and I wanna spend time with them as well.

45:39 So I just said, okay, I finished loading this quilt.

45:44 I like to start the morning with a loaded quilt.

45:47 So I always try to load one

45:48 before I close down for the night.

45:52 Sometimes that's later than other nights,

45:55 but it's just kind of how I like to start my day.

45:59 So everybody works differently,

46:02 but that's me.

46:04 Okay, biggest cheerleader support system?

46:08 My family, 100%.

46:10 My husband, he has been a huge, huge cheerleader.

46:18 Plus he loves watching the machine go.

46:20 He can sit there and stare at it for hours if I let him,

46:24 but that's just a little too creepy for me.

46:27 Yeah, I don't remember if it was a conversation

46:30 before we actually got on the air,

46:32 you're saying about, you put your husband to work too, huh?

46:35 I did, I did.

46:37 Yeah, he actually did.

46:39 That's one I don't hear very often.

46:42 Yeah, yeah, and yeah, we had a name for him,

46:45 but I can't say it on here.

46:50 I got it.

46:51 The initials are QB, so quilt, yeah.

46:55 So we won't take that any further.

46:57 I got you, I got you.

47:00 My kids even made him a shirt.

47:01 He was quite proud to wear it, so yeah.

47:06 Okay.

47:11 You're cracking me up.

47:13 Okay, so what kind of impact is the,

47:21 being able to make money doing this,

47:25 money doing this, and the, plus the time,

47:30 you know, freedom of your schedule.

47:32 Tell us a little bit about that.

47:34 Oh, it's just huge.

47:36 Keeping it like three minutes.

47:38 I have three minutes?

47:39 Oh, sorry.

47:40 Huge, because it's just, I can make my own schedule,

47:44 and really, you can, once you're established,

47:48 it's just a matter of how much money do you wanna make?

47:53 Really, you know, if I wanted to work an extra day,

47:57 you know, my income could go up another 20%.

48:00 I don't wanna do that.

48:01 I don't need to do that.

48:02 So for me, it's that balance,

48:06 and taking time off when I wanna take time off.

48:09 We have a travel trailer, so we like to go camping,

48:11 you know, once a month or so,

48:13 and usually we go three, four days,

48:15 and so yeah, it's crucial to me,

48:20 that I get to set my own hours.

48:25 For the newbies watching here,

48:27 can you think of something that you wish

48:29 somebody would have told you when you first started?

48:32 Might've been valuable to hear.

48:34 Um, you know, kind of going back to what I said before,

48:41 and I alluded to this, no is a complete sentence,

48:46 and don't be afraid to, you know,

48:49 when I, I would not turn work away,

48:53 and sometimes I would beat myself up over it

48:57 because I maybe got into something I shouldn't have.

49:02 I always managed to get out of it,

49:04 but don't take on something you're not ready to take on.

49:12 Like I said, no is a complete sentence.

49:14 Like I said, no is a complete sentence,

49:16 and you know, especially now that I'm established,

49:20 you know, it's, I don't have a problem saying no.

49:26 That was my dog, sorry.

49:28 That's all right.

49:30 And in this day and age, we're in 2024,

49:34 do you think it's still possible for somebody

49:38 to follow the path that you have walked?

49:43 Oh my gosh, absolutely.

49:45 There is so much business out there.

49:48 There is so much business.

49:50 And, you know, I talked to,

49:52 especially a lot of times when I get a lot of new customers,

49:56 you know, they say, oh my gosh,

49:57 I have, you know, 15, 20 quilt tops at home.

50:01 Can I bring you one this month and one next month?

50:03 And like, of course, you know,

50:05 I'm not gonna turn that business away.

50:07 So yes, there's a ton of business out there.

50:09 The main thing is just getting yourself out there.

50:12 And working with fellow quilters that you know

50:17 are getting involved in guilds.

50:19 I never had to get involved in guilds

50:21 just because I was in the shop

50:23 and I still have customers to this day

50:26 that I established from the shop.

50:29 But absolutely, it's out there.

50:35 Well, I wouldn't mind talking to you for another hour,

50:41 but we got to wrap this up.

50:43 It's been great talking to you, Jamie.

50:48 If anybody wants to get ahold of you or see about you,

50:54 where can they go to do that?

50:56 I have a website and it's keepsakequiltingbyjamie.com.

51:03 And that's Jamie with no E, it's J-A-M-I.

51:07 But also I have the Facebook page,

51:11 which is also Keepsake Quilting by Jamie.

51:14 So that can be reached out through there.

51:16 I'd love nothing more than to talk to other potential people

51:21 that are interested.

51:22 I think it's awesome.

51:23 I've trained many, many people on their machines

51:26 and it's a great product.

51:30 I can't say enough good things about it.

51:33 Well, we appreciate that.

51:36 Keepsake Quilting by Jamie, J-A-M-I.com.

51:42 And also Keepsake Quilting by Jamie on Facebook,

51:45 did you say?

51:46 Yeah, on Facebook, yes.

51:47 Okay.

51:48 And yeah, you wouldn't mind some of the newbies

51:52 reaching out to you for some feedback on-

51:55 Not at all.

51:56 Not at all.

51:58 Well, thank you so much, Jamie.

52:00 Okay, well, it's been great talking to you.

52:02 I cannot believe we've been 52 minutes

52:06 talking to one person.

52:08 That's because you're verbally gifted.

52:10 That's a good thing.

52:11 That's a good thing.

52:12 But okay, well, we're gonna go ahead and wrap this up.

52:16 Jamie, thank you again for being an inspiration.

52:19 And for all of you watching,

52:23 we look forward to seeing you again next week

52:26 and happy quilting.

52:28 Bye-bye, guys.

52:29 Bye-bye.